VacationSelector
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Oslo or Paris?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Oslo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’s own page.

Choose Paris for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Oslo 36, Paris 9: Oslo leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Oslo 55, Paris 96: Paris leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Oslo 66, Paris 97: Paris leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Oslo 48, Paris 80: Paris leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oslo 82, Paris 52: Oslo leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Oslo 52, Paris 92: Paris leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Oslo 63, Paris 79: Paris leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Oslo 85, Paris 88: Paris leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Oslo 50, Paris 98: Paris leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Oslo 14, Paris 25: Paris leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oslo 62, Paris 88: Paris leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oslo 60, Paris 40: Oslo leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oslo and Paris.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Oslo
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OsloParis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsloParis
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiFrench
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation23 m27 m
Main airportOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsloParis
City population717,7102,103,778
People per km²-19,960
Museums within 10 km60251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oslo or Paris somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.